Pagenaud takes IndyCar race at Belle Isle

A day after Mike Conway dominated the first Detroit race at Belle Isle Park, Simon Pagenaud gave the engine manufacturer a second consecutive weekend race win.

Honda did more than that. It got a podium sweep with James Jakes finishing a career-best second and Conway in third.

The victory was the first in two IndyCar seasons for Pagenaud, a former American Le Mans Series champion. Conway gave Dale Coyne Racing its second consecutive podium finish after Conway and Justin Wilson earned top-three finishes in the Saturday race.

Honda also finished in fourth (Scott Dixon) and fifth (Dario Franchitti), in part because Chevrolet's top driver, Will Power, was at the epicenter of a 10-car crash.

Chevrolet had the top four positions in last month's Indianapolis 500, a race won by Tony Kanaan.

Pagenaud finished 5.6 seconds ahead of Jakes for the first victory for Schmidt Hamilton Motorsports. Sam Schmidt had an official role in Dan Wheldon's 2011 Indianapolis 500 victory that was entered by Bryan Herta Autosport.

Pagenaud became the third first-time winner this season and the sixth overall in seven races.

"My goal was always to get to Formula One or IndyCar, but my dad never believed I could do it," he said. "It's 21 years of hard work.

"Those last two laps it was pretty emotional. It was difficult to stay focused. When I crossed the finish line it was a pretty sweet moment."

At the other end of the spectrum was AJ Allmendinger, who had almost the same thing happened to him two days in a row. He crashed on the first after the field slowed and he ran over the right side of Scott Dixon's car; Sunday's trouble happened exiting Turn 2.

"I'm embarrassed, honestly," he said. "I don't know where I go from here."

Simona De Silvestro had completed every lap this season until she hit the Turn 8 wall hard on Lap 9. It appeared something came off the car, perhaps cutting the tire.

Ryan Hunter-Reay bumped the wall exiting Turn 7, and that ruined his ability to turn the car in the same spot as De Silvestro hit. Like her, his day was over.

The big crash came on a restart on Lap 28. Sebastien Bourdais ran into the back of Power approaching Turn 1, and that turned Power sideways in front of the pack. What happened from there was a mess of epic proportions.

About a dozen cars took at least some kind of damage, with Alex Tagliani essentially buried in the tire barrier. Also collected: Ed Carpenter, Ryan Briscoe, EJ Viso, Wilson, James Hinchcliffe, Helio Castroneves and Graham Rahal.

Pagenaud and Jakes came for new front wing assemblies.

"Fortunately my reflexes are pretty quick right now and I managed to avoid him," he said. "But my front wing got some damage, so we came in and changed it."

Bourdais received a penalty for avoidable contact, but Power delivered a stronger blow with his television comment.

"He once was a champ, now he's a chump," Power said.

Said Pagenaud: "It was a crazy race. The race was pretty eventful, but I was in full attack mode the whole way."